Great South Run

After a year off we are back at the Great South Run again. We get the train down again this time having to go via London Waterloo rather than Victoria. For a change we alight at the Harbour station which probably isn’t any nearer to our hotel than Portsmouth & Southsea but gets us more a more scenic walk. 

We stay at the Holiday Inn again with the elites and eat again at the Old Customs House in Gunwharf Quays with L’s sister and a few pints of ESB. This is after L has relived her childhood with a trip on the ferry over to Gosport which takes just four minutes in either direction. Ironically four minutes is also about as long as you'd wish to stay in Gosport.

The race itself goes about as well as my previous two this year e.g. it’s more of a hobble than a run but this time without the fainting. My time of 1:32 is 15 minutes slower than last time. The race App however refuses to acknowledge that I’ve finished, so unbelievable that the feat is, and has me stuck somewhere on the final stretch along Clarence Esplanade. Presumably collapsed given how little faith it has in me.

After the race we repeat our night out of two years ago in Southsea. Meanwhile the App says I'm still stuck on Clarence Esplanade. I wonder if I'll have finished by the morning?

Manchester Half Marathon

The alarm goes off at 4am. Which delights the Lad because he thinks he’s getting his breakfast extra so early and he’s not wrong but they are then both dumped as we drive to Manchester for the Manchester Half having conserved enough petrol for the trip. Where we struggle (again) to find our way around the road closures to the parking at Manchester United.

We are so early because my start time is 8:10 after the Half Marathon is shunted forwards to make room for the Marathon which had been cuckoo-ed in after being delayed from April. I was, of course, supposed to be in that but I wimped out of.

There are allegedly no spectators allowed at the start or finish but all this amounts to is L not being allowed in the Race Village but I don’t think she was last time either.

The official advice is to meet your loved ones in a nearby cafe. Which will all be indoors and packed... so not particularly Covid safe and clearly they are also not particularly familiar with the area because despite having a major football ground and a major cricket ground there is nowhere desirable to go anyway.

At the Race Village the staggered starts due to Covid and the traffic issues mean everyone is all over the place with their start times. Once I start I soon pass the 3:00 hour pacer, although I’m not sure why they were so far forward or perhaps I started further back than I thought. Then I pass the 2:30 pacer, then the 2:15. I figure sticking with 2:15 would get me sub 2:08, which was what I did in Newcastle, as I must have started ages after them?

I’m running at an ok pace but then I almost pass out at about 4.5 miles. Feeling faint I stagger to the side of the road before I unceremoniously hit the ground and a marshal finds me clinging to someone’s garden railings. That’s never happened before.

The marshal tells me to have a gel as my sugar must be low then when I tell them I’d just had one she reverse ferrets and say the sugar rush is what’s probably making me feel faint. Ok! I sit down for a while and she gets bored, so she wanders off while keeping an eye on me in case I attempt something reckless like running again.

I tell her I’m going to walk a bit but then when the 2:15 pace passes me again it’s clearly time to start running again.

I spend the rest of the race tipping water over my head to prevent another faint, it is quite warm, and being highly undecided on whether to risk another gel or not. I finish in 2:08 again, which blows my theory about the 2:15 pace who I beat easily, but not bad considering the mid-race lie down.